Godzilla Minus One 2023 Movie Review
Set in post World War II Japan, Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) returns to the ruins of Tokyo racked with survivor’s guilt over running from his duty as a kamikaze and being the survivor of an attack by a creature known only as Godzilla. With Koichi’s parents both dead, he soon finds renewed purpose when he meets fellow survivor Noriko (Minami Hamabe) who is caring for orphaned infant Akkiko (Sae Nagatani). As the three build an unconventional family over the next two years with Koichi finding work as a minesweeper ridding the waters of leftover U. S. and Japanese sea mines, Godzilla returns to wreak havoc upon Japan carrying with it deadly nuclear power.
Godzilla Minus One is the latest Japanese produced Godzilla film from Toho following their last effort from 2016 with Shin Godzilla. Due to the nature of the deal with Legendary Picture’s own Monsterverse, Toho had to abstain from producing their own Godzilla productions (save for some anime projects) and the company’s return to the Godzilla franchise was further put off by other factors such as Covid. Takashi Yamazaki incorporated the feelings of anxiety felt in recent years into his approach for the film and decided to set the film in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II to add to the feeling of bleakness in his approach for Godzilla as an embodiment of fear. Now graced with a wide U. S. release that hasn’t been seen for a Japanese Godzilla film since Godzilla 2000, I’m pleased to say Godzilla Minus One might well be not just a contender for the best Godzilla film, but also one of the year’s best films.
What really stands out with Godzilla Minus One is the film’s amazingly fleshed out characters and environment. With very rare exceptions many Godzilla movies often feel like the human characters are there more out of obligation than any other reason and with the exception of maybe Dr. Serizawa from the original 1954 film (and maybe Raymond Burr’s Steven Martin from the U. S. re-edit) many would be hard pressed to tell you anything all that memorable about the human characters. With Godzilla Minus One Takashi Yamazaki’s characters were so good and so fleshed out that I became invested to the point I often forgot this was a Godzilla movie. The characters of Koichi, Noriko, and Akiko make for an engaging family who we really grow to care about especially since they’re three broken people who’ve inadvertently come together almost without realizing it to form themselves into a whole. Ryunosuke Kamiki gives a great performance as Koichi and his heartbreakingly raw performance of a man struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt is beautifully realized and gives a solid arc that pays off in a satisfying way. The movie also features a great supporting cast including Koichi’s shipmates who are all memorable and engaging in their own right often adding a level of humor and humanity that keeps the film from becoming overwrought.
But just because the movie features a lot of character and emotion it doesn’t forget it’s also a kaiju movie and Yamazaki certainly delivers on that front giving us the most gritty, intense, and often times scary version of this material one can recall of recent memory. Yamazaki films Godzilla Minus One very much like a war movie with the action rarely leaving the level of the human characters which helps to drive home how imposing and powerful of a force Godzilla is in the movie. In many ways the filmmaking reminded me of recent benchmarks in the war genre such as 1917 and Dunkirk in how tense and thrilling the action scenes are. Godzilla himself just looks fantastic and is absolutely terrifying in some scenes with a great introductory scene dwarfed by a later scene where he chases a wooden minesweeper. The fact the movie’s only made for $15-20 million (estimated) and looks better than some films that cost 10 times that much only makes it all the more impressive.
Godzilla Minus One was a real pleasant surprise. Being a lifelong Godzilla fan I expected to like Godzilla Minus One, but I never expected to be as impressed as I was with the characters and story as I was with the technical aspects. I’m not joking when I say I feel this movie could be a contender for Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Academy Awards.
